Monster of the Week/Playing With

Basic Trope: A one time villain or monster that shows up and is defeated in an episode never to be seen again.

• Straight: Bob and his crew of misfits fight against a new monster every week. This week, it's the Condor, a bird-themed villain.
• Exaggerated: A new monster is faced every single day.
• Downplayed: The heroes only fight a new villain every once in a while, the monsters don't necessarily show up every week.
• Justified: It's a literal monster of the week in that it shows up once a week.
  • They are all disorganized minions by the Big Bad.
  • The Big Bad uses the monster-of-the-week to test the heroes' strengths.
  • The city is filled with supervillains, but they set up a schedule so that their schemes don't conflict with one another.
• Inverted: The Week Of Monsters, all the monsters attack at once during the duration of one week.
  • The entire series is about the battle against one monster.
  • The Big Bad is defeated by a new hero every week.
• Subverted: The monster shows up and is defeated in the course of one episode, but he returns in the very next episode, even stronger than before.
• Double Subverted: It was a two-parter. After he's defeated again, he never shows up in another episode.
• Parodied: Every monster is a Big Lipped Alligator Moment.
  • Alternately, every monster is treated as if they will return, even though they only ever appear once.
• Deconstructed: The monsters of the week were in fact part of a Big Bad 's Xanatos Gambit to wipe out the heroes. Even if they are defeated, they still accomplish something that furthers the big bad's goal. And if they do defeat the heroes? Then the Big Bad benefits because a thorn in their side is removed.
  • Alternatively, the Big Bad thrives off of the destruction of monsters-of-the-week and gets stronger whenever one is defeated.
• Reconstructed: The heroes are wise to the Big Bad and his plan and find solutions to beat the monsters of the week without furthering the villain's agenda.
  • The heroes keep on beating the monsters until the Big Bad becomes so powerful he explodes.
• Zig Zagged: The series alternates between one-time foes and recurring villains.
• Averted: The heroes fight the same antagonist or antagonists in every episode.
• Enforced: The producers want the episodes to be able to stand alone in order to be watched or aired in any order in syndication.
• Lampshaded: "There's another themed-monster. It must be Tuesday again."
• Invoked: The Big Bad believes in fighting fair, and because it rarely is just one hero who takes down the monsters themselves, sends only one monster at a time.
• Exploited: The monsters of the week are being used to keep the heroes distracted, the Big Bad knowing that the heroes will be too busy dealing with the minor threats to deal with him.
• Defied: The Big Bad sends his monsters out all at once.
• Discussed: "Do we do anything except fight small monsters?"
• Conversed: "It's the same plot every week. A monster shows up and the heroes beat them."

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